Of Ruin and Rebirth
by She Who Wanders
Summary: An old story of mine, reposted. My take on the what happened after Labyrinth.


Disclaimer: I have no rights to Labyrinth, all characters portrayed herein are the sole property of Jim Henson Productions, (Sarah in this story is based partially on the author however=)  
  
It was a rainy day, the kind that Sarah reveled in. As the echoes of the rain resounded in the gutter bellow her window Sarah stared blankly at the scented candle resting on her desk.  
though her gaze unwavering her mind wandered aimlessly to and from various places that haunted both her dreams and nightmares. As her thoughts touched on the labyrinth for the fifth time that minute the clock chimed,  
she absently counted the strokes and was surprised when she counted beyond the clock's twelve strokes and on to thirteen. "Sarah!", her dad called from downstairs, "your mother and I are going out now, be good and watch your brother!"  
Toby was of an age now where he could move around just enough to cause an annoyance to Sarah but not yet mobile enough to make taking care of him any easier. "fine, great," muttered Sarah, "just what I need." She paused for a moment,  
then realizing her opportunity she made a grab for the phone. Not only did she manage to fling the phone to the floor but she also managed to jam the palm of her hand on the open pocket knife laying on her desk. "God damn it why is this   
happening to me!" she screamed miserably. "One minute my life is fine and the next that stupid, gerr! I can't even say his name without feeling horrible!" She slammed her fist down on her desk top spattering blood on her dormant computer  
screen. Then, muttering obscenities to herself, she marched to the bathroom and began to clean the ugly gash that now marked the center of her palm.  
  
The dead center, Jareth thought with mild amusement. Such aim for an unitensioned act. Jareth also sat at a window, and although this one was far more intricate then the on Sarah sat at an entire world away, it was no less empty.   
As the yellow tinted clouds of the underground drifted by Jareth sighed. Normally this was a gesture he would not permit himself to indulge in, but this time he accepted it and its meaning. "How you turn my world..."  
he sang bitterly, the last words incomprehensible as his rich voice trailed off into the wind that swept through his kingdom almost as easily as he did. Jareth squinted into the last red tones of the sunset deciding then that he would fly.  
Fly away from his home, far away. Anywhere at all, though his heart longed for more he settled to just visit the mortal world. The first stars of the night had just appeared as he donned the ivory feathers of his other self.  
  
Once again in her bedroom, though now with a stark white bandage off setting the light tones of her skin binding her left palm, Sarah punched the numbers into her phone. Three rings later a groggy voice answered her call. "Hm Hello?" the   
semiconscious voice asked. "Gwen you lazy little punk, are you still in bed?"   
"Yea I was actually. What's it to you?" said the now slightly more awake and increasingly sarcastic voice.   
"listen" said Sarah, "I know you're not gonna like this,  
but I was wondering if you could swing by and watch Toby for a few hours." Sarah winced at the thought of the look on her friends face.   
"Are you nuts? First you wake me up, the you make unreasonable and stupid demands of me, what is the world coming to?"   
Gwen said, straightening her mused hair.   
"Not a demand, a request, and might I remind you that you still owe me for salvaging your hard drive after your little accident." Gwen was prone to getting a little overzealous about "fixing" her computer, which usually consisted of  
giving it a few good whacks to "wake it up". In the house up the street Gwen rolled her eyes. "Grrr.. How much are you planning on paying me again?"  
"I'll tell you what, you can use my CD burner while I'm gone." Sarah was getting desperate. "Look Gwen, I really just need to go away right now so get your lazy, mall rat ass down here now!"  
"Christ! Now you're speaking my language, I'll be right there." The phone clicked as Gwen hung up.  
Sarah stared blankly at the poster hanging on her wall for a moment before hanging up her phone and meandering to her closet.  
As she changed, Sarah thought happily about her all too brief freedom. A minute later the doorbell rang and Gwen stuck her head in Sarah's room.  
"Hey, where are you going anyway?" Gwen asked, dumping a huge stack of CDs on Sarah's bed.  
"You tell me, anywhere, just as long as it's not here." Replied Sarah without looking up.  
"Wow, wadid you do to your hand?" Asked Gwen, staring at the now bloodstained bandage on Sarah hand.  
"I tried to slash my wrist and missed."  
The tone in Sarah's voice let Gwen know she was joking, but only just.  
"All right, just be careful, it's getting late you know."  
Sarah glanced down at her wrist watch, it read six thirty.   
"Yea OK," she paused, staring off into space, "I'll be back at nine."  
  
Oh how he loved it, the smell of the wind, the feel of its caress down his feathered spine. Jareth soared ever higher, up, up past the treetops, up past the highest clouds, and on into the scattered stars.  
The wind, his one true friend, embracing him all the way. Just as he felt his wings could carry him no further, a second sun came into focus. It was twilight in the mortal world, the time Jareth felt was best for his frequent visits. His visits however,  
had grown few and far between. Ever since he lost control. Soon after Sarah left, his world had fallen apart. The goblins ran rampant, lost, and without magic preventing them from doing so, they grew to enormous size. The same, mercifully, could not be   
said of their intellect. Had that grown Jareth would no longer hold whatever he still did of his once grand kingdom. His beautiful, horrible labyrinth was now somewhere even he did not venture. The once docile goblins with their newfound strength,   
had changed it. Now no longer the maze of mind, sanity, spirit, and soul it once was, the labyrinth now existed as only a physical barrier of deadly traps and horrible creatures. Jareth winced as he thought of the poor beings that now infested his ruined  
masterpiece. They were once creatures of natural strength and beauty born of the underground, unicorns, dragons, even the noble griffin had fallen into a state of unnatural discontent, derived from a world without magic. Even though he could not bring himself  
to face to true extent of its depletion, Jareth's powers too were faltering. In fact, the only of his powers that still remained was his double life, granted to him by the wind. The wind, his confident, the one element that still harbored faith   
in the fallen goblin king.  
  
Sarah too marveled in the healing powers of the wind in its unbridled fury, the torrent of rain had ended, leaving the earth in a rare state of cleanliness. Sarah inhaled deeply the fresh scent of the rain and wind, her bicycle clicking occasionally with protest.  
Finally she arrived at the small stable where she would find her greatest friend. She had named him Raven's Blood, for the reddish tint his glossy midnight coat caught in the rays of the sun. Raven's blood was one of the very few things Sarah could call   
her own, having bought the horse herself. Raven's Blood, then known as Diablo, was just that, a devil. He had thrown anyone who had tried to ride him at least once, resulting in an incredibly low asking price for his purchase. Sarah had met Raven one day while  
helping to turn the lesson horses out to pasture, he had charged up to her startling the other horses and causing her to fall. She had leapt to her feet, and in a fit of rage, ran right up to him a gave him a none to gentle smack on his shoulder. The startled   
horse had at once eased off, for this was the first time a human had not shown any fear toward him. They were the best of friends from that day forth, with Sarah often sneaking down late in the evening to ride him. They were a marvelous sight to behold,  
with Sarah's strong toned form clinging to the back of what resembled a bottled hurricane. That is just what Sarah intended on doing as she snatched her helmet off the rack and sprinted down to Raven's pasture.  
She quickly scaled the fence separating herself and the horses. When she first began to come the horses would snort and stomp their hooves at her, but now the only notice they took of her was to make sure she wasn't carrying a feed bucket.  
Sarah quietly made her way to the largest of the dark silhouettes, greeting it with a pat on its massive neck. Shortly after their typical greeting she and Raven were galloping across the moistened ground.   
  
Jareth slowly circled as the sun set peacefully over the hills. His flight was irregular, as if he simply forgot to fly and had to make up for it as he fell. Jareth's thoughts took him everywhere and nowhere, but mostly dwindled on the underground, and Sarah.  
How can I possibly hope to gain Sarah's trust when my kingdom is falling apart? Jareth thought angrily. Then it hit him, "How could I have been so stupid?" he questioned himself. "All this time I was looking for an answer and it was the one thing rattling   
inside my skull." Sarah, Jareth thought, the one person who managed to solve the labyrinth without the aide of magic. The cause of him doubting himself and his powers, the cause of all his pain and torment. The one who he had opened his heart to and been   
rejected, the one who forced him to swear that he would never again open his heart if it meant so much pain. His mind reeled at the thought of having to ask her for help, to once again put himself at her cruel mercy. His sharp amber beak clicked as he flew   
toward the place he had knew she would be.  
  
Free, the one word Sarah could think of to describe her current state of being. The rhythmic sound of Raven's hooves pounding the grass matched the sound of the blood pumping in her ears, lost in her thoughts she never even saw the blazing white shape hurtling  
its way out of the heavens until it slammed hard into her shoulder, opening a tear in her thin jacket and knocking her to the muddy earth. The loud shriek the owl emitted as is rendered Sarah unconscious was enough to send Raven's Blood tearing away from the pale demon  
that had invaded his late night run.   
  
Sarah awoke with a start, she glanced down at her watch only to find that its face had smashed in her fall. Fall, Sarah thought, I fell off. How? She was about to dismiss it as just one of those times when the sharp sting in her shoulder reminded her about the icy  
meteor that had propelled her from her mount. "Now what the hell was that?" she asked to no one in particular.  
"Although I am not of Satanic origin, it is nevertheless I who causes your dismay."   
Sarah spun around, digging hands into the soil and disturbing her previous injury. She grimaced in pain and then settled on simply stating his name. "Jareth."  
  
Seeing the look of fear written across her muddied features did wonders for restoring Jareth's confidence, his black cape billowed in the frigid breeze. "I see you still remember my name, as well as our rivalry." "Perhaps you should be more cautious about riding in such   
conditions." He said, reaching out and grasping her hand, pulling her up.   
Sarah was outraged, "You would patronize me? You who could not leave such a pity alone?" "Perhaps it is you who should be cautious Jareth."  
  
Jareth grinned, marveling in how he still held her wonder, even lacking his powers. His powers, they were still gone and now he had opened old wounds with the one from whom he sought help. Jareth's grin vanished, how was he to get himself out of this?   
"Sarah, I apologize for scarring you, as well as for chastising your skills." Jareth uncrossed his arms and let them hang at his side, though his expression remained pained.  
Apologizing? The goblin king? No way, Sarah thought. The only reason he could be doing this is to satisfy his own ends.  
"What is it you come to ask of me Jareth? Run my labyrinth again? Allow me to beat you eh?" "Not in this world Jareth." All to late Sarah realized her mistake, practically inviting him to take her away again.  
  
Jareth caught her slip the instant before she did, and in the blink of an eye they were once again in the underground.   
Sarah turned to scream her anger at Jareth, and was mortified to see the king kneeling on the ground clutching his ribs. Jareth let out a groan, then trying to stand he once again fell to the floor. Sarah, forgetting her hatred, ran to his side. Placing her hands on his shoulders,  
she stared into his mismatched eyes. "Are you all right?" she asked, the first thing that came to mind.   
For a moment Jareth sat in silence, spellbound at Sarah's bold move to help him. It was then Jareth knew that all his efforts had not been in vain. However the blood dripping from her palm onto his vest reminded him of the more immediate problem.  
Jareth broke their gaze, his own falling toward the floor on which they sat. "In full and honest truth," Jareth paused for a moment, "no."   
It was as if the word was made of stone, hard, but once gone a welcome relief.  
Sarah blinked twice. How could this be? Her hated rival admitting weakness, shoulders now held tightly between her hands. She quickly drew her hands back, but then seeing the pain written across his sharp features made her regret the action.  
"Not long after our last confrontation my hold on reality faltered." "My kingdom now consists of what you see before you, a castle devoid of both subjects and a king." Jareth set his jaw and looked to her face.   
Her eyes were calculating, as if judging his honesty. "Please trust me Sarah."  
  
It was all coming in a blur to Sarah, was the king of the goblins really no more?   
"How do I know this isn't another one of your sick little games Jareth?" She spat the last word as if it left a bad taste on her tongue.  
"Listen to me,Jareth countered, with the decay of the labyrinth, so left the goblin king. What you see before you know is a mere shadow of what that man once was. A man without hatred, a man with a lifetime of mistakes and pain to make up for. A man who no longer holds anything of value except   
the feelings once rejected that lifetime ago." Jareth stood and faced away from Sarah, still on the floor.  
"The reason I have asked for your help is because you alone defeated the goblin king and his labyrinth, what now exists of the labyrinth I believe only you can defeat." "I, not as the goblin king, but as Jareth, the once was great king, ask for your help. You alone hold the fate of  
the underground." Jareth lowered his head, still adorned with his golden mane, and faced Sarah, who now stood arms grasped at the small of her back. "I leave this decision to you, if you would deem a ruined man who has held all of your hatred for so long a second chance I will do all,  
in whatever is left of my power to help you. If not, you need but say, and you will once again be sitting astride a midnight steed, feeling the wind on your face." With these final words, Jareth merely stood, his gaze fixed on the one who would decide his fate.  
  
It was all Sarah could do to keep from collapsing, instead she stood for what seemed a lifetime, facing the fallen king. Finally, she choked a reply. "Jareth, I have nothing to loose, my life like yours is in shambles. Everyday I live with the knowledge that I have given away my chance  
to exist in the world of my dreams, with the man who controls them." Sarah paused momentarily dropping her gaze before resuming it with renewed strength. "I will grant you your second chance, and with it my trust knowing that of the roads set before me, this is the one I choose.   
They stood, facing each other for the first time not a rivals but as something more. They now looked into each others eyes with respect and admiration rather then hatred and mistrust, and for the first time in his life, Jareth felt at peace.  
  
Later that evening as the last of the stars came into focus, Jareth and Sarah sat on a balcony overlooking the labyrinth. Sarah now dressed in a clean and elegant shirt of silk and tight new riding pants.  
"I can hardly stand to look at it, now knowing what it holds." Sarah sat adjacent to Jareth with but a candle between them. This served both to alienate Sarah as well as remind her of home.  
"Nor can I, knowing that what populates it were once the beings that came to represent my world." Jareth stared at the vast maze that stretched before them.  
"What do you mean?"  
"Unicorns, dragons, griffins, magnificent creatures all. All having lost faith in the abilities of their king after my defeat at your hands, have transformed themselves from creatures of light, to those of dark. They no longer possess any of the morals that once governed their lives,   
preferring now instead to rule the labyrinth with fear and ferocity." Jareth stared now at Sarah's face through the flickering flame. "Our journey will not be an easy one."  
"I know, but I feel better now knowing that I no longer hold the wrath of the goblin king." Sarah smiled at him, knowing her words stung but also the good it did him. "What is it exactly that we must do?"  
"I was hoping you could tell me, all I can offer is my limited knowledge of the labyrinth. As well as my company." Jareth glanced away, not knowing what reaction his answer had warranted, and was surprised to feel Sarah's warm hand find his own, grasping it tightly. Jareth flinched  
slightly at her touch before pulling his hand back to his lap.   
Sarah, misjudging the gesture, let her now empty hand lie limply on the table. She reprimanded herself for being so bold when she felt Jareth's hand return, somehow different. She smiled when she realized that he had removed his ever present black gloves, holding her hand now   
with his alone.   
  
"How is it I still hold your favor? I, who shattered the respect it must have taken years to achieve amongst your kingdom." Sarah looked at Jareth's form, silhouetted by candlelight.  
  
"I could ask the same of you, for I kidnapped your brother, set your life in ruin, and then laughed at your misfortune." Sarah saw Jareth lower his head, a few golden strands of hair escaping control and fluttering in the breeze.  
"I could call it fate or destiny but that would do it injustice," Jareth now looked strait into Sarah's illuminated eyes, staring into his. "I would call it love." Jareth tried desperately to control the lump forming in his throat, but to no avail.  
Jareth was about to look away, to break to moment, when to his astonishment, Sarah leaned forward and kissed him without hesitation. His surprise soon faded as he sought to deepen the kiss, bringing his still gloved hand to her shoulder.  
  
Sarah didn't know why she acted as she did, and she pondered it for days to come, all she knew was she was locked in a passionate kiss with man whom she had despised not an hour ago. As they finally broke away, gazed at him in wonder.  
How could she have ever hated him? And how was it that he was able to change so quickly from a manipulative tyrant, into the man she saw before her?   
Jareth stood, grasping both her hands in his. "I swear to you, we will finish what we have begun. But not tonight, not when so much hangs in the balance."   
  
As Jareth released her hands and Sarah found herself standing in a magnificent bedroom. She sighed, missing him already. As she surveyed her surroundings, she began to truly realize what she had just done. She smiled inwardly, remembering his surprised expression and then the sweetness  
of his pale lips. She collapsed onto the soft bed, and was soon fast asleep, dreaming of all the wonders of the universe.  
  
As dawn broke over the walls of the labyrinth, Sarah awoke to find a clean set of what she would describe as "combat" clothes and a crisp white note on her bedside table, along with a tray full of hot breakfast. Eagerly, she snatched the pristine paper hoping for a clue as to what her future  
held. She began to read.  
  
Sarah,   
I hope you are well rested and ready. Meet me in the lower levels, follow the red stones.  
~Jareth  
  
Putting down the letter, Sarah began to change into the clothes left for her. The clothes were plain, yet comfortable, and she got the impression that the added padding sown in was not for looks. Lastly she fastened the thick belt that completed her outfit, its ornate buckle resembling a lion's head.  
How fitting, she thought. She walked quickly to the doors, glancing back to see if she had missed anything. What is that? She thought, gazing at her table, a glint of metal having caught her eye. As she walked back the object came into clear focus, it was a necklace of silver, engraved with   
cryptic symbols. It resembled the one Jareth always wore, she noted with a smirk. She put it over her head and entered the hall.   
  
And what a hall it was, its massive ceilings were painted with vivid depictions of scenes both beautiful and terrible. She might have stood there forever, gazing skyward if she had not tripped on a protruding stone that glared up at her as if to say. "We're down here! Not up there!"  
As Sarah looked at it she realized the stone was blood red, and there were more of them leading down a corridor. Quickening her gate, Sarah marched down the hallway, then another, and another. Eventually she lost count of the castle's winding paths, simply content to follow the ever present red   
stones. Then, just as quickly as they had begun, the trail of stones ended. Sarah looked desperately around in dismay, praying that they would start again when the rock at her feet began straining upward. Sarah stared at it, puzzled. What could it possibly want?   
Up, it wanted her to look up.  
Sarah raised her eyes to the ceiling, and there she found a riddle engraved in the painting.   
  
Wherever you go, whatever you see,   
without my help, never you'll be.  
Both time and tide obey my will, while the world is deathly still.  
In black of heaven, never in white, I live my time, survive my plight.  
  
Beyond this message lay a mosaic of the elements, the earth, water, sky, sun, moon, fire, and creature, each leading to a separate stone.   
"OK, fine." Sarah said aloud, "Time and tide, the water?" Sarah glanced at the water symbol, "No, in black of heaven. The night?"   
Sarah carefully read over the rest of the riddle. "The moon it is." Sarah reached out a hand and touched the stone of the moon, withdrawing as the stone retracted. In its place now rested a knob, Sarah turned it and the wall swung open. Just before she stepped through, she bent down and patted the   
thoughtful red stone. Sarah was sure that its red got a shade darker as she passed through the stone door. "piece of cake." She muttered to herself.  
"It wouldn't have been if the stone hadn't helped you." Said a smooth voice from the gloom. As the last word was stated several torches ignited bathing the room it light. Jareth sat before her behind a desk, he too was wearing similar clothing.   
"Jareth." Sarah said, a gleam in her eye.  
Jareth just smiled.  
"I trust you slept well", His tone held a distinct air of sarcasm, "Half the morning is gone."  
Sarah nervously scuffed the floor at her feet with her newly acquired leather boot until she heard his smooth chuckle.  
Jareth stood and strode to the wall at his left.  
"This is one of the many things you should not see," He said, Pulling a book from the bookcase resting there. As he did so, the wall swung open to reveal a stone stair case leading down into the dark.  
He brought a torch to his open palm and motioned for her to precede him. Sarah eyed the stairs warily, she had had some pretty "interesting" experiences on stairs in this castle before.   
"Afraid of the dark?" Teased Jareth.  
"Only when you're in it," countered Sarah, stalking to him and removing the torch form his grasp. As Jareth stared she smiled sweetly and descended the staircase.  
Jareth followed silently, closing the wall behind them.  
  
With his owl form manifesting in him in many ways Jareth had superb vision, with this in mind he held back from Sarah, allowing several paces to fall between them.  
My God how she is beautiful, Jareth watched as her long brown hair swung just above her hips in a tight braid.   
Her hips, his eyes dropped lower, God how he wanted to put his hands on those hips. His eyes closed for a moment.  
"Daydreaming again?" Sarah's voice cut through the darkness like a knife as Jareth's eyes snapped open.  
Sarah grinned, she knew the look on his face as his eyes had closed, oblivious to her watching.  
"Always," Jareth smirked, his face once again an expressionless mask. He skipped a few stairs and caught up to Sarah. They stopped as a wooden door loomed ahead.  
Jareth smiled at Sarah and spoke aloud words that held no meaning to Sarah, but at his command the door unlocked with a loud clunk.  
"After you", Jareth nodded his head toward the door.   
Sarah handed him the torch as she grasped the handle of the door, grateful that this time it was quite inanimate.  
  
As the door swung open a number of torches greeted them, magnified a thousand times, reflected off the blades of dozens of swords.  
"Wow," Stated Sarah dumbly as she ran her fingers over the blade of the nearest sword, then quickly jerked back as the blade grew red hot at her touch.  
Jareth entered behind her, and as he saw the look on her face he began to explain.  
"These swords are not of goblin make, they come from the elves." Sarah turned to face him.  
"You cannot choose a sword, it chooses you, for each blade has its own magic and name." He then walked to an ornately carved ivory box and flipped the catch on the side.  
"The swords protect themselves form misuse, as you just discovered." With that he withdrew a magnificent sword from its resting place. Its blade gleamed silver, while its hilt, like its box, was of beautifully aged ivory carved into the likeness of a bird with outstretched wings.  
"This is my blade, The Queen of Air and Darkness." Jareth then looked at Sarah who stood bewildered, gazing at the bird on the hilt.  
"How does a sword choose me?" Sarah asked, now staring into his vivid eyes.  
Jareth chewed his cheek as he buckled a leather sheath to his belt and sheathed his sword.  
"I don't know." He looked up.   
Sarah now wandered the room, gazing at row upon row of swords, until one caught her eye. It was an elegant blade, its hilt was of gold, like liquid fire.  
Cautiously Sarah touched its hilt and wrapped her fist around it. The blade felt as if it had been made for her, her palm fit perfectly around its grip.  
"The Vengeance of Sun." Sarah stated, unsure of where the words had come from.  
Jareth smiled,"Good."  
  
Later that day, as the sun was high above the labyrinth, Jareth led Sarah through the goblin city.  
"Its not too much farther," he assured her.  
"Where are we going anyway?" Sarah asked. "shouldn't we be on our way?"  
"You'll see."  
  
As they rounded yet another goblin's house Sarah Heard it. A whinny. Horses?  
"Much of the labyrinth no longer stands, therefore it may be necessary for us to cross large stretches of open land." Jareth stopped and looked at her. "So here we are."  
As he said this they walked into a large stable, standing in the middle of the isle was a goblin holding the reigns of two of the most magnificent Horses Sarah Had ever seen.  
They each bore saddles and large packs, one stood a marbled gray, and the other deepest black.  
"Sarah, Meet storm and Ebony." Jareth walked to the Black one of the two. "Ebony, carry her swiftly and truly, keep her from harm." He said to it, rubbing its face.  
To Sarah's shock it answered. "Yes highness, with all my strength." The horse now fixed its gaze on her and slowly inclined its head in a bow.  
"And as for you, how are you my old friend?" Jareth now addressed the Gray, Storm.   
"Eager, highness." Storm snorted as he bowed.  
Sarah walked to Ebony and spoke, not hard for her, for she was accustomed to speaking to Raven.   
"You posses a gifted voice." Sarah said, taken aback by the deep boom that had been set forth by the horse's tongue.  
"Thank you Majesty." Ebony boomed once again.  
Sarah, not familiar being called such a formal title, quickly regained her composure.  
"You are quite welcome, but I am not a queen."  
At this Ebony looked to Jareth, then returned his gaze and bowed once more.  
  
Many thoughts passed through Sarah's head as they set out from the goblin city at a brisk trot, the labyrinth had indeed changed. Where walls once stood now there was only great mounds of rock, the fate of the labyrinth.  
As Sarah surveyed her surroundings her gaze fell to the former goblin king a stride ahead on her left. His jaw was set, his eyes locked ahead, but in them was betrayed a look of incredible pain.  
"I'm afraid I haven't told you the full truth Sarah." Jareth still stared strait ahead.   
"Not only the unicorns have fallen." His head now hung. "But my goblin army as well."  
Sarah thought on this for a moment, "But what about the goblin in the stable?"  
"The only goblins that still remain loyal to me have never known the former king, they are the ones I changed." At these last words he urged his horse into a canter.  
"You mean..., like Toby would have been?" Sarah now cantered.  
"Yes."  
They rode on silently for a while.  
"What of this former king, what does he have to do with anything?"  
Jareth glanced at Sarah. "He was my father. I say was because I severed those bonds when I took the throne." Jareth glanced skyward.  
"He was once a good man, a fair and just ruler, until the other kings grew jealous."  
"Other kings?"  
"Yes, the rulers of the other races, Fae all, chosen by some divine power to rule those incapable of ruling themselves."  
Jareth sighed as the wind caressed his sharp features.  
"My father's army, the goblins, grew more and more powerful, more powerful then even the feared Trolls. The other kings feared he would grow power hungry and destroy them all." Jareth paused.  
"They called a meeting of the elders, the old kings, supreme rulers of the underground, to determine my fathers fate. It was decided then that the goblins should lose all the cunning that set them apart from the   
other armies."  
"My father wouldn't stand for it, he ordered the goblins to construct the labyrinth to protect his kingdom. It was then that his good soul left him." Jareth's expression went dark.  
"There was a battle. My father's army met with the combined forces of the underground, and was crushed. The Goblins were reduced to the bumbling fools you encountered on your first journey here."  
"I'm sorry."  
"Don't be, after my father's defeat I was to rule the goblins, while he was exiled to the lands beyond the mountains.  
I thought him gone, gone, until now. After my defeat at your hands my father returned, he demanded the throne once more."  
"But, didn't you try to stop him?" Sarah was feeling awful by now.  
"No. I gave it to him."   
"Why?"  
Jareth turned and stared at her for a moment then looked away.  
They rode on.  
  
All through the night they rode, Storm and Ebony keeping a tireless rhythm with their immense hooves. Not a word passed between Jareth and Sarah.  
  
As morning approached Jareth finally spoke, "I'm sorry."  
Sarah's head jerked up, she had wondered if and when they would speak again.  
"For what?"  
Jareth slowed Storm to a walk. "I do love you. What happened then matters not any longer." He looked at her.  
Sarah smiled and took his hand in hers. Then suddenly remembering the question that had plagued her all night, she asked,"What of the former king?"  
Jareth sighed and dropped her hand. "It was he that destroyed the labyrinth, cursing it for failing to protect his kingdom. He has rebuilt the goblin army to its former glory, but instead of peace,  
he seeks war. Vengeance for the wrongs done to him."  
"Why is it that the forces of the underground are not once again summoned to stop him?" Sarah asked, studying his face, he needed rest.  
"That is why I have asked you here, the elders discovered my willingness to give the goblin throne back to my father and I was to be killed."  
"I thought you were immortal." Sarah said, puzzled, "How could they kill you?"  
"As my power fades so to does my grip on the gift of the Fae. I am now quite mortal," Jareth stated plainly, looking into the horizon.  
"Why did they not kill you?"  
"They saw in me that I wanted to die, I no longer held the mind to rule the goblin kingdom. So begins my sorry plight. They condemned me to fight my father alone, to win back my forsaken kingdom,  
or to die trying."  
"Alone?"  
"They did not realize that I still had enough power to bring you here, that depleted the last of it." He added hastily. "My father is strengthening his army further in the mountains, hoping to  
bring down the other kings, hoping to do just what they feared he would in the first place."  
  
They dismounted and Jareth proceeded to make camp while Sarah unsaddled the horses. As day broke a fire was lit, and they sat across from each other while the horses grazed.  
Sarah sat thoughtfully for a few moments before stating, "He allowed you to keep the castle."  
Jareth smiled grimly, "Only to remind me of what a poor ruler I made."  
  
It was an overcast day that threatened rain, reflecting the mood of the camp.  
Once again Sarah studied his features, he, not to mention herself, looked exhausted.  
"You need rest Jareth."  
"We will camp here today, then tonight we begin our assault on the mountain." Jareth studied the granite peaks that confronted him, he sighed. "The goblins won't be much trouble, they swarm the mountains,  
hunting. My father's fortress will be sparsely guarded."  
"By what?"  
"Dragons."  
"Oh, is that all?", Sarah was getting irate. "Look, I thought you brought me here to solve a labyrinth, not slay dragons!"  
Jareth ground his teeth, his plan once again having backfired. He clenched his fist at his sides. "At the time I found you my labyrinth still needed to be conquered, that is why I brought you here.  
If you regret having seen me again I'm sorry, you can stay here with the horses while I proceed to my death if that is your wish!" Now it was Jareth who was becoming irate. "Don't bother asking my father  
for help when I am gone, for although he would be the one behind every move in the underground he would surely show the companion of his damned son no mercy!" With this he stood and began hastily toying   
with the food pack, while Sarah sat in stunned silence.   
"It seems it is my turn to apologize." Sarah's eyes wandered over his back. "It's just that I have never used a sword before and."  
"What?" Jareth whipped around. "Oh my God, what have I done?" He slumped to the grass and rested his head in his hands. "I have not only doomed myself, but you as well."  
"You have doomed none if you were to teach me to fight."  
Jareth looked up, then stood up and retrieved his sword.  
  
As night fell on the ruins if the labyrinth Sarah awoke to find Jareth closely examining the path up the mountain. She groaned as she stood up, she was still sore from her all too brief lessons.  
"Time to go." Jareth's rich tones pierced the early evening.  
He turned to face Sarah and walked to where Ebony and Storm stood at attention.  
"Thank you my friends, there is now more you can do here, wait near the river for my return." Jareth now hung his golden crowned head slightly. "Should we not return within the next day, consider yourselves free."  
Ebony and Storm bowed fully, each with a knee on the ground. "Yes my King, be well." Said Storm.  
"Farewell Mistress." Ebony stared at Sarah.  
"Good-bye Ebony." Sarah bit her lower lip.  
Both horses stood up, looked once more at Jareth, then turned and galloped swiftly away. Jareth bent and picked up their swords, handing Sarah hers, careful not to touch it's exposed hilt.   
Without a word they both started toward the mountains.  
  
Midnight, judging from the moon, Sarah stifled a yawn as she lay next to Jareth overlooking the fortress of the mountain.   
"So, where are these infamous dragons I've heard so much about?" She asked sarcastically.  
"I don't know." Jareth tore his gaze from the low built castle in the rock, and turn his eyes to Sarah. "Whatever happens, I want you to know that I will always..."  
He was cut off as Sarah kissed him for the first time since their first meeting. They stayed that way for quite some time, arms around each other until Jareth broke away.  
"My love, this may very well be the end, but I will always love you."   
"And I you, my King." Sarah smiled.  
"I am no king."  
"You are to me." It was Jareth's turn to smile.  
"There is only one way into this castle," he said indicating with his head. "Across the canyon floor."  
Sarah turned to look, "Jareth you can't! Going strait for the doors is suicide!" She clasped his arm as if to stop him.  
"So be it," Jareth pulled his arm out of Sarah's worried grasp. "I will do what I must."  
With that he began to descend the steep incline to the valley below. Sarah sighed and settled in to wait.   
She had lost sight of Jareth some time ago, the only factor betraying his presence was the occasional slip of a rock. Perhaps the former King was not as graceful as he would have her believe she mused.  
With a decisive sniff Sarah rolled over to gaze at the moon, it was a sight to behold and strangely enough it seemed closer to her in the underground then it ever had on earth. As her mind wandered she failed to  
notice the two dark shadows being cast from the very moon she stared at. It was a matter of minutes before she sat up, not caring if she was spotted or not, craning her neck at the strange obscurities.  
"Is it just me or are those getting bigger?" Sarah asked to no one in particular. They most definitely were. She whipped around to find Jareth dashing between the sparse boulders scattered across the canyon floor.  
After flinging several fist sized rocks to warrant his attention to no avail, Sarah began to scramble down the rocks after him.  
  
Jareth's breath came in short jagged bursts, his lungs burning. "Why is this so difficult without magic?" He fumed. His sword clanked painfully against his hip as his pace slowed. Was that movement he had just seen,  
scampering between the turrets of the castle? He paused for a long moment before dismissing it as a twist of the light. This was it, the last run before he hit the palace doors. The once open space before him lay   
littered with the bones of long dead, and eaten he realized suddenly, very large animals. He glanced warily about for any signs of those responsible only to hear the wind whistling among the rocks, as if urging him  
to make haste. "Still with me eh?" He smiled, the wind was fair, it knew what he must do. Jareth took a deep breath before starting once again.  
  
Sarah was sprinting headlong through the rocks, not an easy task as she soon discovered as her foot caught on a particularly aggressive stone, bringing her startled expression into close contact with the hard dirt.  
"Damnit all to hell!" She moved her hands to shove herself up, when they came to rest on a hard shaft of well oiled wood. Sarah stood, bringing the thing into sharp focus, a bow. A bow with a very possessive  
skeletal hand locked in an eternal grip around the leather binding the middle of the shaft. "Ugh!" Sarah glared at the offending skeleton sprawled between two immense boulders. She swatted the hand only to have it  
crumble into a black pile of charred bone at her feet. The realization slammed into Sarah like a hammer. "Dragons, oh God," Sarah again looked for Jareth, once again lost amongst the rubble. She looked down at her   
feet, noting the none to subtle arrow protruding from the ash beyond the skeleton, grabbing it she resumed her sprint down the mountain.  
  
He had made it, almost. The great wooden doors were close enough for him to touch, now he just had to find a way in. This was not an issue he found, as the way had found him. As he reached to grasp the demonically  
crafted handle before him, a great blast of light, and heat he noted with a scream of pain, had erupted from the night behind him. The dragons had landed and dropped their kill so quietly that even with his   
enhanced senses he had not detected them. As he turned on the dirt of the valley floor the searing pain in his left arm forced him to reconsider the motion, he stared at his attackers with a well trained eye. The dragons were young,   
likely nestmates, newly hatched, and trained for the returning King. All this was of little concern however for as he crawled to his feet he was met by the tip of an equally searing blade pricking his pale throat.   
"So, the King returns." Although the face remained cloaked behind a hood of dark fabric Jareth immediately recognized the deep voice so like his own.  
"Yes. The King." Jareth snarled defiantly.  
"Not anymore." Jareth's father threw back his hood, revealing the wild look that his eyes now held. "Not since a mortal broke our heart and killed our kingdom, oh no, not anymore my son."  
"Son? Dare you refer to me a such! You ceased to be my father the day the Labyrinth was conceived." Jareth inhaled sharply as his heated response drew him closer to his father's pointed blade.  
Jareth's father glared daggers into his son's mismatched eyes.  
"I thought you would have seen it by now," The king shifted his weight to the other foot."The source of my vengeance. I once trusted the council of elders, thinking they would see past the goblin's exterior and see that I was no threat. While you,   
after my defeat at the hands of those I once called friends, offered your heart to a cruel mortal girl, who in turn, destroyed the goblin kingdom. Don't you see boy? We can trust no one, the Fae, domain Goblin, have worked alone since   
the formation of the underground, we alone had the foresight to perceive what it was the goblins could truly become, the master race. From the beginning this was my plan, to give them brains, to liberate them from the cruel  
rulers that would confine them as idiots. Not until the Labyrinth did I see their potential as warriors, and oh what warriors they made, until our undoing." The King trembled as his word grew more passionate. "Join me Jareth,  
see my vision, learn what it means to RULE a kingdom." His eyes were lit with a fire never before seen by Jareth, he almost sighed as he met his father's angry gaze.  
"And I too thought you had learned, learned that this kingdom of your vision could never succeed, as the armies of the underground proved." Jareth smiled as his words struck home.  
The King's jaw clenched the instant before his backhanded blow connected with Jareth's defiant face. Jareth found himself gazing at the sky, his back plastered once again to the gray dirt, just before the silhouette of his father's face obscured the stars.   
The dragons hissed with laugher as heavy footfalls approached. With his feet on either side of Jareth's chest the reborn King raised his sword high above his head. "Then you too will pay the price for your lack of vision, you are no more worthy of the Goblin throne   
then that pathetic mortal girl who rejected you so long ago." His face distorted with rage Jareth whispered a silent apology to Sarah as he closed his eyes and awaited the inevitable killer blow that would end his life. To his surprise there was no pain,   
only the sound of a sharp breath, not his own, along with a piercing whistle followed by a sickening thwap that split the night. The vivid silhouette of an arrow extended from his father's exposed neck.  
  
Sarah breathed hard, she hadn't shot an arrow in years, not since the summer she spent perfecting the art, only to have it to stolen away by an overprotective stepmother.  
"Pathetic?" She breathed. "I'm not sure you quite comprehend just how strong a word that is, your highness." She said, stalking up to the fallen body  
of the King. His only reply was a gurgle as his blood turned acidic and oozed from the hole in his throat. Sarah turned to Jareth as his struggled to his feet and brushed himself off.  
"I'm not even going to ask." He stated remarkably plainly for one who had just encountered such a close brush with death.   
As they embraced a cry resounded from one of the dragons, the twin reptiles whipped their heads from Jareth to the  
form of his fallen father. Jareth released Sarah and faced the confused behemoths.   
"My friends," Jareth started, a little unsure how to begin. "I would be honored to keep the company of two such loyal creatures. Please, forget the old King and wrongs he has committed unto you, instead, join me as the protectors of the Goblin Realm."  
The dragons exchanged glances, then one of the twins stretched a mighty neck to the moon and cried out to the granite peaks. As Jareth and Sarah clasped their hands to their ears and the canyon walls shook, a tide of leather and metal clad bodies  
poured down the mountain and from the recesses of the castle. Far larger then she had remembered, the goblins had obviously agreed with the dragon's enlistment with the new King. Uttering such condolences as "Sire", and "M'lord," the goblins bowed deeply to  
the re-enstated King of the Goblins.   
  
As dawn graced the underground with her presence the thundering of hooves and thousands of heavy feet resounded over the plains of the goblin kingdom. Jareth and Sarah rode side by side, the two dragons following suit overhead.  
As they ran the goblins thundered a song of returning home from war, their gravely voices joined by the booming of the dragon twins, Jareth felt the wind over his face, and while silently thanking his everlasting friend,  
Jareth tossed back his head to the sky, and laughed.  
  
The End. 


End file.
